Category Archives: Styled Shoots

This Hill Country Wedding venue is second to make the nominations list for the best wedding vendors in the Texas Hill Country… Contigo Ranch! This beautiful white modern farmhouse venue was born into the Contigo brand just this year and I can’t wait start hosting weddings here! The owners, the Edgerton Family, are also the brains behind Contigo Austin and Contigo Catering, who have an excellent reputation in the Austin restaurant scene. And by the way, they are great people too!

Here are some of my favorite things about this venue:

(1)Gorgeous ceremony site featuring one of the best views of Hill Country I’ve seen at a wedding venue. See the stunning area below… Thanks to Lori Blythe Photography for lovely photos from our styled shoot!

(2)Its white. Need I say more folks. A perfect blank slate with ship lap details, beautiful chandeliers, bistro lights over a patio, and a built in bar. Can I get an “AMEN” from the wedding photographers out there that have been shooting in dark venues for years and years? Brides, your pictures of your reception are going to be awesome.(3)The chairs. It’s a small detail, I know. But as a wedding planner, I pay attention to these things. You don’t have to pay a rental company to deliver stylish chairs for your wedding- they are included! No more mahogany chivari or folding fruitwood, folks. I know you have seen styled shoots on Pinterest with these chairs and thought “ha! As If. Who can afford chairs like that at their wedding?” You my dear. You. Their price point is competitive with other venues in the area, but their stylistic value is much higher.(4)Lodging on site featuring the same great stylish details. Just a short walk away from the reception site, down the beautifully terraced path next to the rippling waterfall. You never thought landscaping could be so impressive, did you?(5) Just a few miles from Fredericksburg. Close to shopping, restaurants, Enchanted Rock and wineries for your guests to enjoy, but far enough out that they can experience the peace and serenity of the Hill Country.

Hurry over to the vendor page to get their contact info and secure your dream wedding date! Sorry, this sounds a little “sales pitchy”. But ask any wedding vendor. We really like to work at pretty places!

Hello? Are you still out there? Emily?……. I’m Here! You haven’t seen me in a while because life has been crazy! Crazy awesome, but still crazy. It has been a season of amazing clients, workshop styling, building a house and lots of other fun things I intend to fill you in on. My website has been getting a serious overhaul while I’ve been away (take a look around!). I’m going to be putting blogging at the forefront of my site now and sharing my Hill Country Wedding expertise with the world. I’ll be talking about Hill Country Wedding venues, debuting the best of the best Hill Country Wedding vendors, sharing tips and stories that are relevant to you, Hill Country Brides. Hopefully you’ll hear from some other amazing and experienced vendors and walk away feeling a little more confident as you journey in planning your wedding! Keep coming back and sign up for our newsletter for updates!

One of the amazing things I got to do this past November was style a photography workshop working with some of the best vendors around! It was a great opportunity to show off my talent, learn from other amazing wedding people and PLAY! Styling for fun (PLAYING) is such a hugely important thing for me as a stylist. It’s the way I study, experiment and learn new ways that colors, textures, etc. work together. It was stressful (yeah, like lots of people are expecting me to be awesome) but invigorating. The workshop was called Cedar and Stone (you can check out my sneak peek of the mood boards and inspiration here) and was hosted by the talented Sarah Goss Photography and Al Gawlik Photography.

Our first shoot was at Montesino Ranch in Wimberley, Texas. Lovely little REAL FARM that happens to host weddings as well. They are legit. There are chickens, kittys and of course horses (scroll all the way to the bottom for those pretty photos). The owners are sweet as pie, and the property is just lovely! The models are a real couple, photographers actually, that performed so well and were really amazing to work with. The Black Tux (I highly forever recommend them) provided that snazzy groom outfit, and Serendipity Bridal in Austin (shop for your wedding dress here for sure) provided that stunning gown. Celissa Rae (hands down my favorite hairstylist and forever buddy) did the do’s and faces.

Gypsy Floral out of Austin (literally the most talented florist I have EVER worked with) did those amazing florals. Plus of the two gals that run it, one of them is named Emily, so we were meant to work together. He he. Bee Lavish provided the glassware and bistro chairs. The place cards and invitation suite were provided by Jenna at Paper and Posies, she did amazing job of matching the style and incorporating an organic element to the table. Kendra provided the jewels. Yeah, Kendra and I are kind of on a first name basis (totally kidding I’ve never met her, but I’m so sure we’d be friends!). La Tavola provided the pretty linen napkins from their Tuscany collection. Whim event rentals provided the pretty copper flatware. I picked up those wood chargers, copper candlesticks, and gray plates at World Market (not practical for a whole wedding, but maybe a head table display- we will talk about this in future posts).

Sarah Goss shot the photos for this post and my portfolio wouldn’t be the same without her. I am obsessed with the film images she shoots, but equally obsessed with her ability to make digital have the richness of film. She is hilarious and super easy to get along with, beyond talented and I’m pretty sure she is going to grow up to be some super famous photographer that I can’t work with anymore. Huge sad face.

Dum, da, da, dum…. Drumroll please… My favorite vendor and pride and joy of this shoot was PENDLETON ! Yes, Pendleton Woolen Mills, American made wool blankets graciously sponsored us and loaned us those amazing wool blankets for use on the table and snuggling. Everyone was super jealous of all the pretties and wanted to take the blankets home. We got socks from them for the gift bags, it was darling, really. If you aren’t familiar with Pendleton, stop reading and visit their website. Fall in love and return to thank me.

Anyway, it was just so much fun. All these amazing vendors… Can you see why it was amazing and stressful at the same time?? It was Featured on Green Wedding Shoes & Brides of Austin!

Well this is just one of the shoots that happened at the retreat. I’ll be sharing the other images in a later post. For now, eat up all the pretties and be INSPIRED! Outtakes below. The horse eating the beautiful flowers, and proof of the kitty cat. Y’all I’m your friend that grows up to be the crazy cat lady… Just so you know.

Happy Fall everyone! I can’t get enough of this 70 something weather right now. I fear the heat returning, so I’m wearing scarfs and making yummy fall treats to celebrate. One of my girlfriends always says, “buy the pumpkins and the weather will follow!” I hope that’s true!

Another exciting thing about this fall is the Cedar and Stone workshop that I’m styling! I’m super pumped about working with the amazing team of vendors (see some listed here) we have lined up. It’s going to be a weekend of hard work and hanging with cool people, but I’m most excited about the creative side. It’s so fun to create something original and have people engage with it. We will be setting up our styled shoots at three really great Hill Country Wedding Venues- Montessino Ranch, Pecan Springs Ranch, and The Liney Moon.

Since I mentioned it last week as a teaser, I thought I would share a little inspiration with you for one of the shoots! I can’t share all of the details, because that would ruin the fun, but here are some of the inspiration images, colors, and patterns that showed up on our mood board.

For those of you that aren’t familiar, mood boards are super helpful in setting the tone for a shoot or event. They guide all of the vendors on the “feel” and the color story, but are never meant for copying. We want to come up with something original, but this allows us to communicate the vision. Then each vendor can come up with an original design inspired by the mood board. It’s really neat to see the initial mood board and compare it to the final product. I can’t wait to show you the results!

There are a couple of spots still available if you are interested in attending. It’s going to be super inspiring and amazing!

It was so exciting to see this baby shower I styled for a dear friend published to Style Me Pretty Living. What’s even cooler was that they published it on her birthday! Happy Birthday Jen! Here’s what they said about me: “Three things: children’s books, a gender neutral theme and friend chicken. That is what this mama-to-be wanted and Emily Burgess of Hill Country Bride so delivered. Playing off the theme of Alice in Wonderland, she incorporated whimsical garden details, a beautiful gray and white neutral palette, a cake bar and yes, fried chicken. Sounds like the perfect combo.” Ahhh, how cool. 200,000 instagram followers saw my work. Proud moment y’all! And so grateful to Lori Blythe Photography from Fredericksburg for the amazing photos!

Even without knowing it would get published, it was such an honor to be asked to style this baby shower for Jennifer and her coming little one. When we started planning this shower we asked the mom to be if she had any specific requests. She mentioned three things: she would love to have baby books with personalized inscriptions instead of cards, she would like it to be gender neutral as they were waiting to find out the gender of the baby, and fried chicken. Yep, fried chicken. That was her pregnancy craving food that she couldn’t get enough of!

With these three requests in mind, we had a lot of freedom to design, but a good starting place to give us direction. Since she mentioned the baby books, we found out that her own favorite children’s book was Alice in Wonderland. As we explored these elements, we came up with a design theme of an Alice inspired tea party, in neutral color tones (gray and white) and an evening of comfort food.

The Color Story

We chose neutrals, because of the unknown gender of the baby. From there we narrowed it down to black, white, and gray, to honor the original printing of Alice illustrations that were in black and white. We also snuck in just a couple of robin egg’s blue details reminiscent of Alice’s blue dress in the first movie version. We asked all of the guests to wear white/gray to include the attendees as a part of the design of the evening, and asked the momma to wear a bright pop of color as the center of attention and affection!

The Venue

Another friend’s garden backyard in the heart of historical Fredericksburg, Texas was the perfect setting for this event. It even came with a garden door that was like a real life door into wonderland!

The Linens

We really wanted to use a fun linen on the table, something that felt like Wonderland. When we came across a gray on gray roses, we were sold! It so reminded us of “Paint the roses!…” in the Queen’s garden. It was perfect!

The Favors

When considering guest favors, we came up with tea cup potted plants. The tea cup after the Mad Hatter’s tea party, of course, and the plants as a symbolic inspiration of new life. Jennifer is also a lover of nature and totally appreciated the incorporation of a gift that keeps giving life!

The Florals

The Flower Pail (a Fredericksburg florist) did a great job of executing our vision for the florals. She made a whimsical arrangement using white roses (referring to the white roses in the Queen’s garden again!) and untamed greens in white milk glass. Thanks to Sister’s Vintage for the milk glass, candlesticks, beautiful gold rimmed plates and gold flatware!

The Eats

We did a family style meal of comfort food, just as our Momma to be requested! This was a crowd pleaser for sure! We also had a variety of tea party style desserts served on a restored 1950’s vanity (this is when the first theatrical version came out) and incorporated our story through little “eat me” signs! Restored Fredericksburg found this beautiful vanity piece for us!

The Paper Products

Our paper designer brought her own unique touch to our inspiration! She had lovely whimsical mommy and baby rabbit graphic for the menu and used a floral robin’s egg blue envelope liner for the invite. She used a gold metal clip to incorporate the menu with a prayer card for the guests to send prayers with the Mommy to be. Lara at Bobo Workshop in Fredericksburg, Texas did an amazing job!

The Charm

Since literature is so special to Jennifer, we really wanted to make this evident in the story of the evening. We pulled inspiring quotes from the Alice in Wonderland book and posted them about the party. These quotes were the perfect fit for the magical celebration of a little one! We found these lovely white funky chairs and mix-matched chairs, including a big high-backed chair for the guest of honor, just like the original illustrations of the Mad Hatter’s tea party.

From New Mama, Jennifer Phillips… Two years ago my husband and I moved from Dallas back to a small Texas town and I didn’t dare dream we would find such a marvelous group of friends to share our life with here. But after less than a year we had fallen in with a great group of people and when the ladies of said group banded together to throw me a baby shower, I knew it would be a dream come true. When I arrived I was completely enchanted. It really was the kind of idyllic soire you see in magazines or read about in a Fitzgerald novel. To celebrate the arrival of our sweet baby, these talented women had created a stunning evening filled with candlelight, laughter, a thousand beautiful details, my favorite foods, and–best of all–friends. Hosted by Katie Turpin, Sarah Dale, Sara Harding, Emily Burgess

It was such an honor to be asked by Sarah Goss and Amy Gawlik to be the stylist for their upcoming photography retreat, Cedar and Stone. Everyone will be lodging at the Liney Moon in Dripping Spring, Texas, and the venue locations are at the beautiful Montessino Ranch in Wimberley and the lovely Pecan Springs Ranch in Austin. I am so excited to be working with these amazing hill country wedding vendors!

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About Emily

Hi There! I’m Emily Burgess, the owner and founder of Hill Country Bride. Thanks for stopping by! I am so excited to meet you and hope to join you and your loved ones on this new adventure in your lives!